FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Cindy Deppe, media relations, 641-269-4834

October 2, 2007

TEACH FOR AMERICA FOUNDER TO SPEAK AT GRINNELL COLLEGE

Teach For America founder and CEO Wendy Kopp will deliver the Grinnell College Scholar's Convocation on "Realizing Educational Opportunity for All," on Thursday, Oct. 11 at 11 a.m. in the Joe Rosenfield '25 Center, Room 101.

Kopp developed the concept for Teach for America while a student at Princeton University and has, over the past 18 years, developed a national corps of new teachers committed to low-income communities across the country. Teach For America corps members work in public schools in 26 urban and rural areas most affected by the education achievement gap. Most corps members are new college graduates from some of the top institutions in the U.S. who commit to two years of teaching service in disadvantaged areas.

Named one of America's Best Leaders in 2006 by U.S. News and World Report, Kopp will forgo a speaking honorarium and instead provide her book, One Day, All Children: The Unlikely Triumph of Teach For America and What I Learned Along the Way, to Grinnell students who attend the convocation. Teach for America actively recruits on the Grinnell campus, and within the past four years, nearly 30 Grinnell graduates have committed to the national teaching corps.

Kopp's appearance at Grinnell is part of the college's weekly Scholar's Convocation series. For more information about the speaker series, go to http://www.grinnell.edu/offices/ce/convocations/. The Joe Rosenfield '25 Center is located at 1115 8th Ave. on the Grinnell College campus.

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